Ghost
by Zeralul
Summary: What appears to be a regular extraction mission quickly turns unclear.


L84518N was thrown back into consciousness coughing as he felt his lungs burning up. He felt around and discovered that he was strapped down inside a drop pod. He tried to gasp, but it was impossible to breathe without the air burning his lungs. Feeling his face, the man realized that his part of his protective mask had broken off, leaving his respiratory system in peril. He was suffocating on some sort of gas that was seeping into the container. The ghost stood up and pulled on the door handle, but it was stuck. Unfazed, he kicked the door straight off of its hinges and the sunlight from outside illuminated the purple vapors that had surrounded him.

The ghost gritted his teeth and sprinted through the hot purple gas pouring out from cracks in the ground while unslinging his C-10 rifle. After running for an agonizing thirty seconds, he broke out of the poisonous purple clouds and into fresh air. He doubled over and breathed hard, supporting himself with his gun.

After recovering, L84518N observed his environment. The land was mostly flat and dry, with some mountains and canyons in the distance. There were numerous geysers and cracks in the ground spewing out the unknown purple gas that had nearly killed him earlier. The dirt on the ground was thin and there were only a few patches of yellowed grass in the distance. The sun above him bore down hard. He could still smell and feel the acrid gases in his lungs.

L84518N could not remember where he was or why he was here. Figuring that he was deployed here on a mission, he attempted to contact headquarters.

"L84518N reporting in. Do you copy?"

There was no response except for the sound of static. It was either his headset or the signal that was broken. He slid on his multi-lens goggles and turned them on. Accessing his mission objectives, he found only one simple order:

"Retrieve F27123A from the Zerg hive. If subject is discovered to be infested, neutralize target."

L84518N was sent to rescue his fellow ghost, F27123A. Ghosts rarely, if ever, worked together on missions. However, sometimes the situation was drastic enough that it was necessary. On the handful of missions that he had worked with another ghost, L84518N had the honor of working with F27123A. F27123A was a talented ghost who had never failed a mission during his entire career. He worked and killed methodically and ruthlessly, earning himself the nickname of "the Rifle." The man followed all of the Dominion's orders without complaints. After the first mission of working with the Rifle, L84518N began to look up to him. L84518N now found it his personal duty to save his ally F27123A from the Zerg. He thought of the possibility that it was too late and that F27123A had already been infested, but L84518N wrote it off as unlikely.

L84518N thought it strange that he could not remember being deployed in the drop pod or even being briefed about his mission. The only thing that he could remember was that he was stationed on the Dominion battlecruiser _Intrepid_.

Following the coordinates he had been given, L84518N trekked across the rugged badlands to his objective while keeping his eye out for Zerg threats. Fighting a Zerg swarm alone out on open ground was practically suicide. Being surrounded or even simply flanked by only two enemies would put him at a severe disadvantage. He had to sneak and evade instead of charge in head-on if he was to have any chance at survival.

The air was oddly colored due to the purple gases floating around and out of the cracks in the ground. The vile vapors partially concealed the skies, which worried L84518N since it only took one overlord to detect his presence through the gas. That would be the end of him. A swarm of zerglings could be called to strike him out of nowhere and he would not be able to fight them off alone. However, the closer he got to his objective, the more gas geysers there were. He decided that the purple fog was inescapable and he had to trudge on regardless.

A dizzy feeling suddenly struck L84518N. His vision blurred and he struggled to remain standing as his legs began to quiver. A stream of vivid colors flashed before his eyes, and his mind was pierced by the sudden sound of a gunshot and a little boy screaming.

"Noooo!"

The horrid scream echoed in Charles's mind for a few moments as he went blind. His legs gave way and he fell to the ground. After a terrifying minute, his vision returned. L84518N found himself lying on the dirt, confused and disoriented. He eventually managed to stand up and take a breath. It felt like he had just woken from a nightmare. If what had just happened occurred during an encounter with hostiles, he certainly would have been torn apart. L84518N was slightly shaken, but he had no choice but to dust himself off and continue on with the mission. However, the chilling sound of the boy's wail stuck with him as proceeded onwards.

After an hour of silent travel, L84518N heard something far off in the distance. It was the loud unmistakable screech of zerglings, confirming the fact that he was getting close to the Zerg hive. With no cover or vantage point, he knew that he had to be very careful about taking out the little demons. The ghost dropped prone, set up his rifle's bipod, and looked through the scope. Through the thin purple vapors, he spotted four of the dog-like mutants mulling about, investigating the geysers and sniffing around. Even with the element of surprise, however, L84518N would have to be quick if he was to succeed at killing them all before they could escape or even worse, get to him. He checked to see if his rifle was loaded, aimed the first shot, and squeezed the trigger.

The shot struck true and the zergling's head burst apart. The other zerglings turned towards the direction where the shot had rang out from. As they began to race towards him, L84518N took another shot. It pierced straight through one of the zergling's bodies, dropping the creature on the spot. The two remaining zerglings unfurled their "wings" and bolted across the land towards him like lightning. They would reach him in a matter of seconds, but they flew at him predictably and in a straight line. This made things easy. He took his shot, believing that it would strike true.

However, as the bullet flew, one zergling twisted off to the left and the other veered to the right. The bullet barely missed the left zergling, instead implanting itself into the ground and raising a small plume of dirt. L84518N picked up his rifle, stood up, and braced it against his shoulder. With his gun ready, he turned to the left and sighted the zergling about 30 feet away from him. He fired a shot that penetrated the zergling's head and immediately kill it. Knowing the distance of the zergling he had just killed, he predicted that the other zergling was about to pounce on him from behind. He gripped his rifle like a club and preemptively swung it while turning around. Sure enough, the zergling was in mid-air lunging at him with its claws ready to tear through his body. The body of the rifle struck the Zergling on the side and the impact made a audible cracking noise. The zergling was thrown backwards with a large crack in its carapace. As the hissing creature rose to all fours, L84518N aimed his rifle and finished it off.

The ghost looked around to see if he had drawn the attention of any surrounding enemies, but he saw none. He began to reload his rifle. Without warning, his vision began to blur again. His legs turned to jelly. L84518N tried to support himself with his rifle, but he collapsed to the floor. He gripped his head with both hands and curled up into a ball; his head was throbbing agonizingly. For the first time in a long while, L84518N was frightened. He began to hallucinate.

The vision was fuzzy, but he could faintly make out the figures of two men, a woman, and a little boy. They were in some sort of shoddy apartment. The woman held onto the child tightly in the corner of the room and was stroking his head. From the poise of the man, he could tell that he was protecting those two of them from the other figure. Perhaps they were his wife and child. The other man, who had cornered them, had a rifle. The unarmed man was yelling furiously at the armed one, but as hard as L84518N tried, he could not make out any the words. It sounded as if the voice was coming through a thick wall. The armed man said something and then eliminated the man with a shot through the head. Without flinching, he aimed at the woman next. The boy screamed.

"Noooo!"

Another shot was fired and then everything faded to black.

L84518N regained consciousness. He did not know how long he was out, but he immediately felt that he was being dragged across the ground by something large. He quickly figured that it was either the local wildlife or the Zerg. An unmistakable gurgle emanated from the creature towing him along, leading him to conclude that it was the latter. Opening his eyes, he mentally cursed, as all he could see was the irritating purple gas. As they moved to an area where the vapors were not as thick, he identified the bug-like creature as a Zerg roach. Up until that point, the ghost did not realize he was clenching his rifle in his right hand with a death grip. He had a weapon at least, which was good. L84518N knew that it would take at least three perfectly aimed headshots from his rifle to kill the beast. Even if he wasn't being dragged behind the thing at the moment, it would be difficult to land the shots.

L84518N thought it strange that he was not killed on sight. The beast must have found him helpless on the floor while he was hallucinating. The animalistic Zerg were usually mindless and merciless creatures with a disdain for anything living. L84518N did not want to find out what they had in store for him, so he had to act quickly.

With one forceful movement, he kicked and broke free of the roach's grip. He rolled forward, got up on one knee, and aimed his weapon. The hulking creature turned around to face the ghost, surprised. This was perfect. He lined up the shot and fired a bullet into the roach's head. The creature barely winced and skittered towards L84518N. The roach swung one of its large claws at the ghost, but he anticipated the attack. He deftly rolled to the side and aimed another shot. Before he could take the shot though, the roach swung with its other claw. It slashed across L84518N's chest, and he was pushed backwards by the force. The beast then turned away and moved to a distance. It was preparing to launch a barrage of its deadly acid saliva. By the time the ghost finally stood up, the roach had fired its first shot. A large cloud of green acid spit flew directly at him. L84518N had no time to roll to the side and was forced to drop prone under the acid. Knowing that he couldn't take a good shot at the roach while dodging its lethal acid, the ghost was forced to cloak. He pressed a button on the side of his goggles. His cloaking device emitted a quiet hum and he became invisible. Immediately, a number appeared on the screen of his goggles. 194 seconds. It began to tick down for every second that he remained cloaked.

194 seconds was plenty of time. The confused roach fired acid blindly and randomly, attempting to hit its prey, but it was no use. L84518N took advantage of the monster's helplessness by repositioning himself and aiming his rifle. His shot pierced through the same place that the first one did. Without flinching, he aimed again. The third and final shot hit the same place, and the roach was done for. The roach wailed a death cry and collapsed to the ground. A mixture of blood and acid leaked out of the creature with a hiss.

L84518N then noticed the stinging pain from the wound across his chest. The roach's claws were razor sharp and had made quick work of his light armor. He felt that the wound was not too deep, but he could not tell the true extent of the damage because he was cloaked. The ghost raised his hand to his goggles decloak himself, but luckily, he took a look around first. Floating in the distance was the living, flying sac of gas known as a Zerg overlord. He lowered his hand. If he uncloaked now, the overlord would most likely see him and alert the rest of the Zerg swarm.

Taking a second look, he realized that the overlord was flying over purple ground. It was Zerg creep. He had finally reached the Zerg base. L84518N suddenly remembered F27123A and his original mission objective. With no time to spare, he began his approach with 160 seconds remaining on his cloak timer. Luckily, the average overlord could not see through his cloaking device. However, there were certain Zerg creatures that could: overseers and spore crawlers. Overseers were severely mutated overlords, covered with freakish eyes that could see through his invisibility. Spore crawlers were like living cannon barrels embedded in the ground that could spit harmful spores at its targets. They also had the ability to negate his cloaking.

L84518N carefully made his way across the purple Zerg creep. It was thick and slimy, making soft squishing sounds as he stepped on it. This kind of terrain was perfect for Zerg creatures like hydralisks, who moved primarily by slithering. They could move across the slime at terrifying speeds. The purple ooze also provided sustenance to the Zerg "structures," which were actually living things. He saw a few of those mounds of flesh called structures spread out across the creep, as well as largest living structure of all, the hive.

There were also some Zerg forces patrolling the base. Four overlords moved without noise through the sky. Six or so zerglings were idly playing with their claws or dashing about. There were two large roaches and one towering hydralisk. Most importantly, he noted that there were no overseers and only two spore crawlers. If he was detected, L84518N would stand no chance against all of these Zerg. Therefore, avoiding the spore crawlers was his first priority.

He weaved around the base, following the quickest path to the hive in the center of the base while avoiding detection. The patrolling zerglings ran by him a few times, but they could not see through his cloaking device. Every time this happened, L84518N had to stand still and be dead silent. Although he was invisible, the cloaking device could not mask the sounds that he made. After a couple close calls, he eventually reached the cave-like opening of the hive. 100 seconds remained, which meant that he had made good time.

Right before L84518N was about to enter, the lone hydralisk slithered straight at him, headed into the hive. Not noticing the incoming beast until the last moment, he had no choice but to clumsily roll to the side to avoid the collision. His impact with the ground made a slight noise. At this sound, the hydralisk stopped in place and looked around. It readied its tremendous scythe-like claws and it hissed. The hydralisk was at least two times taller than L84518N and just as deadly. The ghost remained on the floor without moving a muscle, staring straight up at the gigantic monster that could kill him in one blow. He clenched his teeth and his gun, preparing for the worst. The hydralisk seemed to be looking down directly at him through his cloak. After what seemed like hours, the hydralisk finally turned around and slithered away into the hive. L84518N took a moment to stand up. That was a close call, but he could not let it perturb him. He entered the hive.

The inside of the hive was a series of fleshy, dark tunnels. L84518N felt like he was in the digestive system of a living thing, which was not too far from the truth. The Zerg hive was responsible for birthing larvae and even the digestion of minerals and vespene gas. These two resources provided the nutrients and the raw energy to morph the larvae into the wide variety of Zerg creatures. L84518N could not shake the feeling that he was being watched as he traversed the hive. He wondered if the hive could feel each of his foreign footsteps and would alert the rest of the Zerg. Rechecking the coordinates, L84518N pinpointed his objective near the center of the hive and eventually found himself standing in the central chamber of the hive. Also there in the center of the chamber was the lone hydralisk from earlier. This would be a perfect opportunity to take out the hydralisk, which was the greatest threat to him among all of the Zerg in the base. One well-placed headshot from behind would fell the beast.

L84518N aimed his rifle and took the shot. As if it knew what was coming, the hydralisk twisted its body to the side. The bullet missed the hydralisk and made a hole in the wall of the chamber. The whole room appeared to shift in response to the pain. Though L84518N was confused, he aimed another shot. Before he could do so, claw-like appendages burst from the ground and got a hold of his legs. The hydralisk turned towards him and it seemed to smile. It opened up its chest cavity to reveal hundreds of needle spines ready to be launched. Each needle spine was about half a foot long and decorated with multiple large hooks. Getting impaled by one would be excruciating, but removing a needle spine would be fatal because of the severe bleeding that would ensue.

"Well, I guess you won't be needing this anymore."

The pseudo-human voice came from behind him. L84518N felt his cloaking device being torn off of his suit and his body rematerialized. The voice sounded familiar, but alien at the same time. The voice sounded like two different voices talking in unison. The unidentified man walked around to get a better look at his captured prey. When they saw each other, they recognized each other at once.

"Well, if it isn't L84518N himself."

L84518N recognized the figure immediately. It was the Rifle himself, F27123A. In disbelief, L84518N saw that F27123A was showing signs of severe infestation. His left arm had become an enormous reddish-purple claw. Random tentacles protruded from his body, and jagged yellow teeth protruded from his mouth. It was too late for him. F27123A had been completely infested by the Zerg.

"You've been infested."

L84518N raised his rifle and attempted to shoot his former partner in the head. F27123A responded by smacking gun out of his hands as the shot fired off. The rifle flew across the room and hit the wall.

"Charles," F27123A said while shaking his head. "Do you really think you have the upper hand in this situation?"

The claws binding his legs exerted more force on L84518N and brought him to his knees.

"Still blindly serving the Dominion, are we Charles?"

"I'm here to rescue you."

F27123A stared at the ghost for a moment and then laughed. The double voice that Zerg infestation gave to its victims gave his voice a haunting quality.

"I know that. I've been reading your mind since you first landed on the planet. I knew the uninvited guest in my territory was a ghost, but I wasn't expecting you, Charles."

F27123A began to pace.

"You see, the idiotic Dominion have been sending ghosts after me for a while now. They try and eliminate me. Of course, they fail each time. I was the best ghost in the Dominion, after all. I know all about their tricks and tactics. After I play with them for a while, I kill them and let the local wildlife feed on their bodies."

He pointed to the hydralisk and cackled.

"And now, they've given me the gift of delivering you. I can promise you that you will not enjoy this, Charles."

The hydralisk launched one of its sharp spines straight into L84518N's left arm. It dug itself deep into his flesh, and he cried out in pain. The wound began to bleed. The more he moved his arm, the deeper it penetrated.

"One spine shot, hundreds more to go, my friend."

"You traitor," L84518N spat. "You will die for your crimes against the Dominion. I will make sure of it."

Even through the hideous mutations, L84518N saw that F27123A was looking at him with a bemused expression.

"Do you really love the Dominion that much, Charles? After what they've done to us all?"

"What are you talking about?" L84518N asked through clenched teeth, trying to deal with the pain of his injury.

"Mengsk doesn't care at all about humanity. The Dominion is ruthless and will eliminate anyone who gets in its way. Have you not heard about what they've done and the Dominion's true origin?"

"Don't you dare talk about Emperor Mengsk that way. All of that is hearsay. I don't believe a word of what the traitorous rebels say. The Dominion is the only truth."

F27123A shook his head and sighed.

"Typical Dominion garbage. Do you know that the Dominion performs routine memory wipes on its ghosts? That would explain your ignorance and illogical devotion."

The truth was that L84518N did not know that. The memory wipes selectively cleared all of the memories that the higher-ups did not want the ghosts to remember, including the memory of the procedure itself. L84518N did not want to believe it, but he knew that the Dominion would do anything to get what they wanted.

"Regardless, the Dominion is humanity's last hope. It's understandable that humans have to do whatever it takes to survive. With Zerg menaces like you, extreme measures must be taken with our soldiers."

"And civilians."

"What? The Dominion would never harm civilians."

"You foolish, foolish boy. They've killed more civilians than you can ever know. Your emperor is a bloodthirsty, paranoid tyrant."

These words enraged L84518N, despite his training to remain calm. He struggled against the claws holding him down. His immense eruption of strength allowed him to break free of the claws, and he charged straight at F27123A with his fists raised. However, one swift roundhouse kick from F27123A sprawled L84518N out on the ground, where the claws grappled him once again.

"You'll pay for that pathetic attempt, Charles. Should I torture and kill you, or should I have you infested? Hmm… maybe I'll torture and then infest you."

"Get it over with. You won't break my faith, you monster."

"You know me, Charles. I'll always rise to the challenge. Let me explain something to you about your precious Dominion."

F27123A signaled the hydralisk and it shot another spine directly into L84518N's left shoulder. L84518N groaned in agony, but he was helpless to stop the pain.

"It is naïve of you to think that the Dominion does not harm civilians. After all, you've experienced it first-hand."

Through gritted teeth, L84518N responded, "I've never seen the Dominion do that. What are you talking about?"

"Ah, it's because of the memory wipes. You don't even remember your own origins. Do you not remember those visions you've been having recently?"

"What? Did you implant those in my mind?"

"Me? No. It's the terrazine gas this region is known for emitting. Plus, they aren't visions, Charles. They're memories. Prolonged exposure to gaseous terrazine undoes the effects of memory wipes. I will admit, watching you relive your memories was extremely entertaining."

L84518N struggled with the thought that the vision he experienced was one of his own memories. If what F27123A was saying was true, then he must have been the ghost who killed the defenseless man and his wife. He made that little boy scream. And F27123A saw the memory as well.

Suddenly, a vent in the chamber opened up and the purple terrazine gas flowed through the room.

"This wonderful gas has brought back all of my wiped memories, Charles. I discovered personally that Mengsk is no better than the Zerg. You see, the Zerg only desire to kill. The Dominion has committed crimes against humanity worse than murder. Torture, brutalization, rape. These are only a few of the crimes that your honorable emperor has sanctioned. Let us both experience your vision fully and you'll see the true horror of the Dominion."

Once again, L84518N's vision blurred and he crumpled to the floor.

He saw the apartment again. Lamps were shattered and some of the tables were overturned. Trash and broken glass littered the floor. There had been struggle. The ghost with the rifle once again had the family cornered.

"Release the boy and you will not be harmed," the ghost said with a deep, raspy voice.

"What gives you the right to come into our home and take our son away?" the woman asked, her broken voice showing her fear.

"It is a direct order from the Dominion. Disobey it and there will be consequences."

The family was crying. The boy's face was buried in his mother's body while he sobbed. She tried to comfort him by stroking his head, but she was shaking violently herself. The man looked back at his family, heartbroken.

"I won't let you take him away! Get out of our house right now!"

"The Dominion is the only truth. Release your son and we will leave immediately. Obey your Emperor. This is your final warning."

The ghost flipped the safety off of the rifle.

"You monster! I refuse!"

"Then you are an enemy of the Dominion and must be eliminated."

L84518N cringed as his past-self fired his rifle without any emotion and killed the man. The father lay there on the floor with a hole in his head. Blood spurted out of the wound. The ghost wasted no time and aimed the gun at the woman next.

"Noooo!" the boy wailed.

He fired again and the woman died. Her dead body slumped over the boy and he was momentarily trapped under it. As the boy crawled away in terror, the ghost moved in on him like a demon and knocked the boy out with a brutal blow to the head with the butt of the rifle. Then everything faded away.

L84518N regained consciousness, and once again he was on the floor of the Zerg hive. F27123A stood above him and smiled grimly through his sharp teeth.

"So now you know the true gravity of your past."

L84518N was shaken. He had taken civilian lives without any reason. But there had a reason. For one, they disobeyed a direct order from the Dominion.

"I only did what I had to do. There had to be some sacrifices of innocent life for the greater good. My killing of those two for the Dominion does not faze me. The two faithless traitors refused, and they had to pay for their crimes."

F27123A was silent for a moment and then began to snigger.

"You've been misguided once again, Charles."

"What? What are you talking about?"

F27123A stopped and pointed his claw at L84518N's face.

"That ghost from your memory? That wasn't you," he explained. "That was some random ghost. You, my friend… you were the boy. The Dominion killed your parents in cold blood and kidnapped you to serve their malicious purposes."

L84518N began to tremble. His eyes were opened wide and his jaw dropped. There was no way that it could be true. The Dominion murdered his parents. His emperor, who always upheld peace, law, and order, was the cause of his parents' deaths. L84518N was in shock. He realized that everything he did from that point on had disgraced the memory of his parents. They died so that he could continue to defend the twisted morality of the Dominion. How many innocents had he killed in his life? Exactly how many revolting memories of his had been wiped? How many crimes against humanity had he committed?

"Yes, that was the reaction I was looking for, Charles!"

F27123A howled with laughter at the sight of L84518N's anguish. This harsh laughter, however, brought L84518N back into reality. He was still in a life-or-death situation. He could spend time sorting out his feelings later. Right now, he had to escape from this predicament.

Utilizing some of his latent psionic energy, L84518N attempted to scramble F27123A's brains with a psionic blast. F27123A's well-oiled reflexes allowed him to respond with a counter, effectively nullifying the blast. He chuckled.

"Nice try, Charles. Didn't I tell you that I know all of your ghost tricks?"

There was a momentary silence. L84518N looked down at the claws, and then at the hydralisk and F27123A.

"Not this one."

With a roar, L84518N channeled all of his energy into a device on his right forearm. From it sprang a glowing blue blade of pure psionic energy. F27123A had not noticed this device earlier and was astonished. L84518N cut through the claws that bound him to the ground with his psi blade.

The hydralisk saw the prisoner break free and released a volley of needle spines at him. L84518N anticipated this and rolled under the spines towards the hydralisk. He sprang to his feet and, assisted by his psionics, charged with superhuman speed towards the monster. L84518N jumped, dodged its scythes, and landed on top of the beast, burying the psi blade straight into the hydralisk's brain. He twisted it around a couple times and then jumped off the creature. The hydralisk fell backwards, dead.

L84518N turned around to face F27123A.

"You're next."

"I doubt it."

After a few moments of circling, they both charged at each other. L84518N readied his psi blade and F27123A extended his claw arm. Psi blade met claw as they clashed together. However, the psi blade was many times sharper, cutting through the claw with ease. The psi blade, continuing its arc, found its way deep into F27123A's chest. He gurgled in pain and staggered a little. L84518N simultaneously kicked F27123A to the ground and pulled the blade out of his chest. F27123A landed flat on his back and could not get up.

"You're done for. I've freed you from your slavery to the Zerg."

F27123A coughed up a little bit of blood, but then responded, "You… you're calling _me_ the slave?"

"You're infested. The Zerg have taken over your mind. That is why your once honorable and endless loyalty to the Dominion has melted away."

F27123A was indignant.

"Your mind's been infested as well, Charles! Can you not see that? Since you were young, the propaganda of the Dominion has been pumped into your brain. They murdered your parents in the name of order, and yet you still blindly follow them. They trained you mercilessly as a ghost and implanted all kinds of cybernetic devices in your brain. Each one of those devices is aimed at keeping you under their control and under a tight leash. You're under constant surveillance and your thoughts are always monitored. How is that any different than this Zerg infestation? Can you tell me?"

L84518N thought about it, but could not think of a reply. Instead, he picked up his rifle from the ground and put it against F27123A's head.

"I didn't think so, Charles."

"Die."

L84518N pulled the trigger and the Rifle's head shattered into a million pieces.

"Objective completed."

L84518N did his best to distance himself from the hive as fast as he could. He managed to reattach his cloaking device onto his suit and extracted himself safely. An endless stream of conflicting thoughts flowed through his head. Eventually, L84518N remembered to attempt to contact control when he was safely away from the Zerg base.

"This is ghost L84518N. My mission objective is complete. Do you read me?"

There was a short pause.

"We read you. We're headed to your location and will be there in approximately one minute."

L84518N looked through the scope of his rifle and saw a small Dominion army incoming. It consisted of about thirty marines and six siege tanks. This definitely was not an extraction team. It was quite the opposite; he knew that the presence of siege tanks meant that they needed something blown up.

The ghost met up with the Dominion force. The force proceeded to lay waste to the Zerg base from afar. The siege tanks fired away with their long-range 120 mm shock cannons, blowing the Zerg forces sky high before they had a chance to retaliate. The Zerg hive itself was blasted into oblivion, destroying all evidence of what had happened to L84518N inside.

"Yeah, show 'em who's boss! Kill them dead!" a marine screamed.

L84518N then promptly passed out.

He awoke alone, sitting in what appeared to be a dark medical room. The wounds across his chest and in his arms were bandaged up. They were still tender to the touch, but the bleeding had stopped a long time ago. Something about this room was suspicious, however. His mind felt particularly enclosed. Before he could do anything further, the door was unlocked and an officer entered. The door was closed behind him.

"Congratulations on your success, L84518N. You've neutralized a great threat to the Dominion."

The stranger smiled at him and L84518N sat up straight, saluting.

"I was just doing what I was told to do, sir."

"And the psi blade prototype worked well?"

"It worked perfectly. It did exactly what I told it to do, sir."

The man gave L84518N a close look.

"Good. Now, I'm here to perform a routine check-up on you. Just relax while I check your neural implants for any damage."

The man walked behind L84518N and brought a large metal helmet down onto L84518N's head. The helmet had many wires coming out of it, which were plugged into the wall.

"This may hurt a little."

An electrical pulse flowed through the wires and into Charles's brain. Suddenly, his memory of his parents' murder started to slip away into nothingness. He realized that the device was wiping away his memories, something that he was not about to let that happen again. This entire experience was something that he wanted to remember. Charles had learned something monumental about the Dominion and he had planned to find out more. He wanted to know the whole story behind the government. He desired the truth.

When Charles tried to stand up, metal restraints immediately appeared from inside the chair and held him there. He tried to burst from his bindings like he did in the Zerg base, but the cold, dead metal held him in place. In desperation, Charles attempted psionic blasts and even tried to activate his psi blade, but to no avail. He then realized why the room felt different; his psionics were completely blocked. Another agonizing electrical pulse reached his brain.

"The terrazine gas you were exposed to has undone the positive effects of our past therapy. Don't worry, you'll recover just fine. Then you can go back to serving the Dominion at full capacity, L84518N. Welcome back."

Charles let out a cry of despair right before the last electrical shock knocked him out.

L84518N had once again been completely infested by the Dominion.


End file.
